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Vilifying Muslims In America
By Stephen Lendman
8-7-11

Judge nations by how they treat all people, whether equally,
or advantaging some over others. Judge them harshly if they persecute some
for political advantage.

In America, people of color and Muslims are fair game.
It's longstanding policy based on prejudicial attitudes, stereotypes, deep-seated
racism, and notions of corrupted Western values, high-mindedness, and moral
superiority.

Post-9/11, in fact, Muslims are perceived as barbaric,
violent, uncivilized, gun-toting terrorists, easily targeted, accused,
prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned - not for wrongdoing, for their faith
in American at the wrong time. As a result, it's no surprise that when
suspects are named, media reports automatically convict them in the court
of public opinion.

So do racist politicians for political advantage. Two
notably among others stand out:

In fact, notorious Islamophobes like him, Lieberman and
many others in Congress threaten humanity worldwide by funding and supporting
destructive global wars, as well as persecuting innocent victims at home,
endangering everyone as a result.

No matter that Islamic tenets teach love, not hate; peace,
not violence; charity, not selfishness; tolerance, not terrorism; or that
Islam, Christianity and Judaism have common roots. You'd never know it
in today's climate of hate and fear at a time America wages global wars
on Islam, including at home.

People For the American Way (PFAW) Takes Aim at Anti-Muslim
Extremism

Its new report focuses on "The Right Wing Playbook
on Anti-Muslim Extremism," saying:

"Under the guise of defending freedom and American
values, right-wing anti-Muslim activists....prevent Muslim-Americans from
freely worshiping and practicing their religion, curtail their political
rights," urge deportations for some and prosecutions of others.

Connected to overall racial and religious hatred, Muslims
became a favored target of choice. As a result, politicians argue for close
monitoring, investigating, and curtailing their freedoms to stop them,
destroying core democratic values in the process.

Post-9/11, manufactured paranoia claims Muslim are a
fifth column threat to US security, "working to bring about America's
downfall." Vicious rhetoric and accusations vilify them, calling them
a dangerous internal threat to be stopped.

According to David Yerushalmi, a leading anti-Muslim
propagandist/general counsel for the far-right Center for Security Policy:

"Muslim civilization is at war with Judeo-Christian
civilization....The Muslim peoples, those committed to Islam as we know
it today, are our enemies." The way to defeat them is to criminalize
Islam, he believes, proposing:

-- 20 years imprisonment for knowingly supporting the
furtherance of or adherence to Islam;

-- congressionally declaring war on Muslim nations;

-- declaring all non-US citizen Muslims alien enemies
under Chapter 3, Title 50 of the US Code, subjecting them to immediate
deportation; and

-- assuring no Muslims get entry visas to America.

Accordingly, Muslims are perceived to be violent. No
moderate ones exist. According to University of North Carolina Professor
Omid Safi:

"A common ploy by Islamophobes is to go to a predictable
list of verses in the Koran and the words of Muhammad and to argue that
(they) - with no context, no interpretation, and no alternative (ones)
- represent the essence of Islam for all eternity, no matter what Muslims
may say or why they may protest."

Notorious Islamophobe David Horowitz claims that "between
150 million and 750 million Muslims support a holy war against Christians,
Jews and other Muslims," based solely on his racist anti-Islamic hate.

In addition, right-wing religious extremist Pat Robertson
compares Muslims to Hitler, urging Americans to fight them the same way,
and the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer calls Muslims "parasites"
and a "toxic cancer....out to eliminate and destroy western civilization."

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain says he
won't have Muslims in his administration if elected. Newt Gingrich defended
his position in a Republican candidate debate, comparing them to Nazis.
Rep. Renee Ellmers (R. NC) calls them terrorists responsible for 9/11 (an
exposed lie), and Allen West (R. FL) claims Muslims are naturally "wild"
because God cursed Ishmael and his Muslim descendants.

The Pat Robertson/Jay Sekulow-founded American Center
for Law and Justice claims Islam compels its adherents to fight America
and other countries, saying:

"Because Islam grew out of the belief in complete
world domination, every Muslim is obligated to labor in his own way toward
achieving that goal, no matter where he lives or what sovereign claims
his allegiance."

Distorting Truth to Spread Lies

Fake research is used to attack the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR). As a result, Republican senators and congresspersons
want the group investigated.

Not for wrongdoing. For encouraging young Muslim-Americans
to become congressional interns to learn more about politics. Nonetheless,
CAIR and other Islamic groups are vilified. During Rep. Peter King's first
hearings, Rep. Chip Cravaack (R. MN) called CAIR a "terrorist organization."

During his witch-hunt congressional hearings, Peter King
also used falsified information to claim over eight of ten American mosques
advocate radical Islam, threatening US security.

Super-hawk racist Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security
Policy also repeats the same lies in his campaign to prevent US mosque
construction, and Islamophobe Gary Bauer claims unnamed "experts"
support his allegation that individuals disseminating "radical Wahhabist
ideology" fund 80% of American mosques.

In fact, a 2010 Duke/University of North Carolina Triangle
Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security study showed Muslim American
communities use mosques and affiliated community groups to fight against
violent extremism.

Nonetheless, vicious hatemongering persists. Other examples
include:

-- ACT! for America claims public schools secretly convert
students to Islam, "literally brainwashing (them) to prepare them
to turn against our own soldiers and our own military and government by
basically feeding them the talking points of al-Qaeda;"

-- The Oak Initiative's Rick Joyner tells parents that
public school texts are replacing Founding Fathers with Muslims;

-- the American Family Association claims Mattel's Little
Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo dolls tell children "Islam is the light;"

-- in 2010, numerous Islamophobes attacked the Miss USA
pageant after it chose a Muslim America the winner; and

Stop the Islamization of America's Pamela Geller claims
if Muslims have the same rights as other Americans, they'll "impose
Islamic supremacism" on the country.

Oklahoma legislator Rex Duncan wants the state Constitution
to ban Sharia law because "America was founded on Judeo-Christian
values, and we're unapologetically grateful that God has blessed America
and blessed Oklahoma."

ACT! for America Kansas head Lisa Ritchie claims:

"The law that (Muslims) really do live under is
completely different opposite from our law, so they can't live side by
side. So one's got to go....We live in a free United States and I want
to keep it like that."

Moreover, anti-Muslim extremists claim Islam is a dangerous
political ideology, not a religion. Rep. Allen West (R. FL) calls it a
"theo-political belief system and construct" that must be destroyed.
The Traditional Values Coalition's Andrea Lafferty insists "Islam
is a geo-political military system wrapped in a cloak of religious belief."

Former Muslims United's Nonie Darwish claims "mosque(s
aren't) just....place(s) for worship. (They're) where war is started, where
commandments to do jihad start, where incitements against non-Muslims occur.
(They're) place(s) where ammunition is stored."

Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber calls Islam "Satanic,
(something) not of God and of Christ, (so) what it is of is the Enemy."

The American Family Association's Bryan Fischer says
"there is no spirit of God in Islam. It is the spirit of Satan."
Pat Robertson also claims Islam's not a religion, "but a political
system bent on world domination."

Islamophobic groups also argue that Muslim Americans
deserve no First Amendment religious protections because Islam's not a
religion. As a result, they claim, US legal freedoms will let them impose
"totalitarian" ideologies. According to Gaffney:

"Our enemies are using our tolerance of religion
to create an infrastructure of mosques here that incubate the Islamic holy
war called jihad (as part of a) stealthy 'civilization jihad' in this country."

Others want mosques banned for this and other intolerant
reasons. Lt. Gen. William Boykin (ret.), former Bush administration Deputy
Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, claims Muslims have no constitutional
rights, saying:

"We need to realize that Islam itself is not just
a religion - it is a totalitarian way of life....It should not be protected
under the First Amendment, particularly given that those following the
dictates of the Koran are under an obligation to destroy our Constitution
and replace it with Sharia law."

The American Family Association's Fischer also believes
"Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, (nor the) right
to build mosques in America." At the same time, AFA claims to defend
"the rights of conscience and religious liberty from infringement
by government."

"We may have a president who has some fundamentally
anti-American ideas that may be rooted in a childhood" much different
from most Americans, because "our communities (have) Rotary Clubs,
not madrassas."

Rep. Gohmert claimed on the House floor that a verbal
Obama slip exposed his secret loyalty to Islam, saying:

"And I know the president made the mistake one day
of saying he had visited all 57 states, and I'm well aware there are not
57 states in this country, although there are 57 members of OIC, the Islamic
states of the world."

Other right-wing extremists make similar outlandish claims,
including Obama wanting to "appease his Islamic overlords."

Muslims are also linked to other targeted right-wing
groups, including progressives. For example, Islamophobe David Horowitz
argues that there's "only a couple of degrees of separation between
anybody on the left and the terrorists - and that includes people in the
Democratic Party."

In his book titled, "Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam
and the Radical Left," he claims Muslims and progressives abhor America
and American values.

Christian Broadcasting's Erick Stakelbeck said "the
left sees Islam as an ally and western civilization and the Judeo-Christian
tradition (as an) enemy. They have a shared hatred for this country."

Glenn Beck claims left-wing groups work with radical
Muslims to build an Islamic caliphate in America, united against capitalism,
Judaism and stability.

Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber claims "radical Islam
and radical progressivism" cooperate because of their shared hatred
of God, saying together they'll "try to destroy Christian principles
and Christian expression in this country and abroad."

Others link immigrants with Islamic terrorists, including
claims that Iran is smuggling them into US cities. As a result, AFA's Bryan
Fischer insists immigrants "must convert to Christianity" or
be prohibited from coming to America.

Frank Turek (fired by Cisco Systems for his anti-gay
writings) told American Family Radio that "the homosexual community
and Muslim community (are) joining together (because they) both hate western
civilization" and the Constitution.

Former House Speaker/Republican presidential candidate
Newt Gingrich told members of a Texas Church that secular humanists in
league with Muslims want to destroy America as we know it, saying:

"I am convinced that if we do not decisively win
the struggle over the nature of America, by the time (my grandchildren
are) my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one
dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once
meant to be an American."

A Final Comment

Republican and Democrat Party right-wing extremism is
a cancer destroying America. In 2012, one of their own may become president,
bringing ideological hate to the White House if elected.

On June 14, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
National Executive Director Nihad Awad expressed concern about anti-Islamic
sentiment aired by Republican presidential candidates at a June 13 New
Hampshire debate, saying:

"When the candidates were asked: 'Are American Muslims
as a group less committed to the Constitution than, say, Christians or
Jews?' not one spoke up (for) religious tolerance. While most remained
silent, Herman Cain reiterated his position that he would treat Muslims
differently than members of other faiths. (He) and (Gingrich) echoed the
far-right manufactured controvery about Sharia replacing the Constitution."

In fact, "Muslim groups are currently at the forefront
defending the Constitution against attempts by many states to pass anti-Muslim
legislation that clearly violates the Bill of Rights."

Moreover, it's "unconscionable" that political
aspirants like Gingrich, Cain, and many others equate Muslims with fifth
column threats to America.

In fact, many do and say so. Others also but mute their
comments or stay silent. At issue is what's threatened all Muslim Americans
post-9/11 - persecuting them maliciously for political advantage, making
it unsafe for anyone practicing Islam by equating it to terrorism.

America's First Amendment states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Those serving in it and the White House are mandated
to enforce all constitutional provisions and statute laws. However, it
hasn't prevented them from violating them, especially against vulnerable
Muslim Americans.

As a result, anyone may be at risk in a nation targeting
its own for political advantage. It's everyone's obligation to stop it.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
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